Word: fortases
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Shortly after Richard M. Nixon entered the White House, he would become the target of the press, the Justice Department and ultimately the legal world for what were perceived to be ethical breaches. If before he was the torchbearer of liberalism under siege, after the second round of controversy, Fortas...
Murphy writes this biography as if it were a murder mystery, with the victim being Fortas' political life. In the end, he concludes, "The Rise and Ruin" of Fortas is the story of a murder-suicide. The strength of this massive work lies in the depth of detail offered and...
BUT if Murphy has learned how to tell a story from Woodward and Bernstein, he has unfortunately allowed his historical imagination to take its cue from investigative reporters as well. Murphy believes that Fortas' story is murder-suicide because the justice and top adviser to Johnson, who proved so adroit...
Yet Douglas was never brought to ruin for it. Murphy suggests that Douglas knew how to play political hardball in a way Fortas did not; when Douglas was bleeding, he struck back at the sharks while Fortas treaded water in deliberation. But there is more to the Fortas story than...
Indeed, from reading this biography, one gets the distinct impression that far from not being able to handle the rough and tumble ways of Washington, Fortas was all too good at politics, so good at it that he probably didn't belong on the Court.